


When He Laid Upon My Chest

by QuickSilverFox3



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Crafts, Cuddling & Snuggling, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, M/M, Slice of Life, Winter Date, featuring a Nug with Wings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-30
Updated: 2019-12-30
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:33:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22034095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuickSilverFox3/pseuds/QuickSilverFox3
Summary: Krem has a job to complete, the most important job of his Chargers career. Cole is very supportive of his boyfriend's endevours.-“Is it finished?”Krem twitched away from Cole, catching himself mid movement with a wince, back protesting at the sudden stop. Time had slipped away from him, lost in the small repetitive motion of drawing a needle through the fabric Sera had donated.
Relationships: Cremisius "Krem" Aclassi/Cole
Kudos: 22





	When He Laid Upon My Chest

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SpookyXipher](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpookyXipher/gifts).



> A slightly belated Secret Santa present for Spooky! Hope you like it and that you have a wonderful 2020!! <3  
> Exact request was: Something cute with Cole and Krem, like Krem teaching Cole to sew.

Krem rolled his head from one side to the other, feeling the tension release with cracks that echoed strangely around his small bedroom. The blanket from the bed behind him was pooled around his waist, having fallen from his shoulders as he worked.

“Is it finished?”

Krem twitched away from Cole, catching himself mid movement with a wince, back protesting at the sudden stop. Time had slipped away from him, lost in the small repetitive motion of drawing a needle through the fabric Sera had donated. He deliberately didn’t ask where she had gotten soft felt in the middle of a war, his scissors easily cutting the seal of one noble or another off of the corner. He had dropped them into one of the braziers that burnt merrily beneath his window, flames crackling and spitting against the gently falling snow. 

The light that filled the room was grey now, night drawn across the sky like a blanket, the candle next to Krem burnt almost down to the sputtering wick.

Cole looked ethereal in the low light, the sight of him momentarily stealing Krem’s breath. 

His hat was resting on the pillow where they both had been lying 𑁋 Hours? Days? It seemed so long so now and Krem could measure the passage of time in the wax pooling beneath the candle and in the aches in the pads of his fingers 𑁋 the fabric still holding his scent, that strange mix of ethereal otherness that lingered around the mages and the lavender that a group of children had woven into his braids earlier that day. The tiny purple buds slipped down as Cole moved closer, every movement careful, to peer over Krem’s shoulder at the mess of fabric in his hands.

“Not yet,” Krem sighed, smoothing one hand over what would be the back of the stuffed nug, smoothing away the scraps of thread that clung to it, “Still got the head and some of the stuffing to do.” 

Krem couldn’t feel people’s thoughts or feelings like Cole could. Curiosity had driven him to ask after one date, barely a week ago.

⁂

Krem couldn’t feel the tip of his nose, his fingers had long since gone numb, but he was grinning until his cheeks ached with the joy of it all. He knew Cole’s hand was held in his, the other’s head tucked beneath his chin with a woolen hat in place of his usual attire, but he couldn’t feel it. 

The once pristine field of snow bore the marks of their passage, littered with snowmen slowly beginning to crumble as their lopsided construction dragged them sideways and the trenches of their footprints chronicling the snowball fight that had erupted there. 

Krem hadn’t known why the Fereldans liked snow so much. It had seemed like rain but worse. Rain could be hidden from, whether in a tavern or the guard house of whatever noble was paying them for this job or that. The biting cold that came with snow couldn’t be hidden from, as different from the suffocating oppressive heat of Tevinter as it was possible to be. Nobles tended to be more reluctant to part with their coin during the colder months. The harvest 𑁋 and the promise of new jobs either stealing the harvest or protecting it 𑁋 seemed so far away, so the sight of snow became linked to a tightness in his empty stomach and a longing for home just to get away from the never ending cold. 

“So cold all the time, never going away. A chill in spring and pray to Maker that winter will not come early this year.”

Cole’s voice broke Krem out of his memories, words muffled by the scarf wrapped around his neck. Craning his head, Krem could see the slight shift of Cole’s eyes, grey flecked with the palest blue of the early morning sky, staring at nothing. Krem kissed the top of Cole’s head, wool sticking to his lips, the material damp with melting snow as his heart swelled until it ached. 

He loved Cole so much it took his breath away, set his head spinning and warmth trickling through his frozen limbs. Krem turned his thoughts to happier subjects, watching Cole’s face for the play of emotions, the crease between his eyebrows smoothed away by unseen hands, jaw slackening as a sigh escaped him. His breath fogged on the cold air, a grin twitching on Cole’s lips as he listened to Krem’s thoughts.

“Looked so happy, snow piled higher than her as she scrambled on my shoulders to stab the sticks into the mess she called a snowman. Called me ‘Mister’ and waved when she ran home.”

“What is it like?” Krem asked, the question surprising them both, Cole freezing in his arms before wriggling around just enough to blink up at Krem, gaze locked onto his with ferocious intensity. 

“I didn’t have the words for it before,” Cole said after a long pause, relaxing back into Krem’s arms, running the edge of one jagged nail against Krem’s own. Krem hugged him closer with his free arm, pulling Cole further onto his lap. The blanket was damp against the fabric of his trousers, melting snow seeping into it and sending chills down his spine. His legs ached, small stones that previously went unnoticed were making themselves known, but he ignored them.

“It’s like sleeping but being awake at the same time. But I like listening to you,” Cole said, speeding up as he sensed or simply guessed the direction Krem’s thoughts would inevitably turn in.

“Yeah?” Krem asked, a grin spilling across his face despite himself.

“Yeah, I love you,” Cole said as if it was the easiest thing in the world, and Krem was helpless to do anything but kiss him soundly, pouring all the words trapped in his chest into the action.

⁂

“Why a nug?”

Krem bit back a laugh that the memory sparked. 

“I hadn’t been in Ferelden long with the Chargers long,” Krem began, turning the fabric round and round in his hands as he thought, tugging at the edges to test his stitching.

“The village we were staying in between jobs hadn’t seen a Qunari before, and they definitely hadn’t seen a Qunari and a ‘Vint travelling together, let alone with other more ‘normal’ Fereldans. The adults were… uneasy at first but the Boss won them over.”

It had been almost a work of art to watch the Boss talk to people, to see the fear and mistrust fall from their faces the more he spoke, worries set aside despite themselves. Before Krem knew it, they were in the tavern and he had to scramble to sit on Bull’s blind side, heart in his throat despite the peacefulness of the situation. This couldn’t be real, just the prelude to an attack and yet…

“We stayed there for a week,” Krem said with a laugh, sifting through the discarded pieces of fabric next to him. He frowned, chewing on his tongue and flicked through them again, slower this time, hunting for the chalk markings on the other side of the piece.

“Here.”

Krem glanced up at Cole, catching the briefest glimpse of the other before the soft fuzz of fabric covered his face. Krem didn’t need to see Cole to be able to picture the grin on his face, the way his eyes crinkled at the corners, the slight peak of one pointed tooth.

“Thank you love,” Krem said amid Cole’s helpless giggles, tugging the fabric from his face. He could smell the faint dustiness of the chalk clinging to the markings as well as smoke deeper down, confirming to not question where Sera had gotten it from. Cole leant down willingly at the slightest tug of Krem’s hand against his jaw, the faint scratch of stubble against the calluses on his hand threatening to send Krem’s mind wandering where it shouldn’t with a deadline looming. He settled for kissing Cole quickly, barely more than a brush of the lips, and settled back against the bed, wooden frame digging into his spine. 

“One of the little girls there, in the village, her mother was a tailor, like my father is- was,” Krem continued, words becoming slightly muffled as he stuck the end of the thread in his mouth to sharpen the end, pressing it into a point. 

“She’d died from sickness so the girl just had this toy, meant to be a Nug but so thin. She’d nearly worn it away into nothingness. Her dad asked, so I… fixed it for her.”

Krem paused as he carefully rethreaded the needle, eyes narrowed into slits as he peered at the needle in the dimming light.

“She looked so happy, heart full to bursting. Enough warmth to melt the snow, hugging the Nug so tight the stitches threatened to give way,” Cole murmured, mattress creaking beneath his weight as he moved to prop his chin on Krem’s shoulder, breath warm against his neck.

“Boss saw it, and ever since then, he’s been angling to create a flying Nug. No idea why,” Krem laughed. He huffed out a breath as he began to sew once again, thumb aching with new indents layering over the old. 

“Wind rushing past your face, so close to the sky you could reach out and touch it. No-one ever looks up, and then, a Nug. Middle of the camp, squealing. Panic and how his sides ache, tears running down his face. Wouldn’t that be hilarious?” Cole said, head tilted to the side until he was pressed from chin to temple with Krem as he listened to the Iron Bull downstairs.

Krem swallowed, feeling the stubble on Cole’s face, so light and fine it was barely visible, scratch against his own soft cheeks. It hurt ever so slightly, but in a way that made him want it more. 

“He managed to convince Cassandra to let him borrow a trebuchet. So I’m making him a Nug with wings,” Krem said, the familiar push and pull of the needle relaxing his racing thoughts. It was comforting in a mindless way, unable to think about anything much beyond the next stitch.

Hours passed like that until, finally, it was done.

“Are you staying with me tonight?” Krem asked, hugging the Nug to his chest reflexively with a yawn. His ribs ached, a sign he had worn his binder too long, lost in the sewing. Tomorrow would be a ‘wearing armour’ day luckily, and hopefully filled with a stuffed nug flying through the clear sky.

“I’d like to.”

Krem stood, seemingly every joint in his body cracking as he did so, and tucked his arms into his shirt in order to pull his binder off, throwing it onto the chair in the corner. He could barely keep his eyes open, tiredness washing over him like a wave as Cole shifted over on the small bed to allow him to collapse onto it. Cole fit into his arms as if he was made to be there and Krem sank willingly towards the depths of sleep.

“Can you teach me?” Cole whispered, the words slowly passing across Krem’s mind as sleep threatened to overtake him.

“I’d love to. Tomorrow?”

Cole answered with a kiss to the underside of Krem’s jaw, before tucking his head beneath his chin. The pair slept soundly, the Nug tucked between them, a job well done.


End file.
